Elizabeth Vargas (Actor)

Elizabeth Vargas reports from Israel on 20/20. (Photo: ABC)

The first woman of Puerto Rican extraction to be named co-anchor of ABC’s nightly news program “World News Tonight” and the news magazine “20/20” – as well as the first woman anchor in the United States since Connie Chung – Elizabeth Vargas distinguished herself in the field of television news early on in her college days.

Born Sept. 6, 1962, in Paterson, NJ, Vargas grew up the daughter of an army colonel. Like many children of military personnel, the young girl of Puerto Rican-Irish descent spent much of her childhood at various army bases, both stateside and abroad. She graduated from Germany's Heidelberg Amercan High School in 1980 and returned to the United States to attend the University of Missouri, where she majored in journalism. While attending the university, Vargas got her first on-air experience as an anchorwoman at the school’s television station, KOMU-TV.

After graduation, Vargas worked at TV stations in Nevada and Arizona before joining WBBM in Chicago. Her tenure there lasted four years before she departed to become a correspondent for “Dateline NBC” (1992- ) in 1993. While with NBC, she also appeared as a substitute co-anchor on “Today” (NBC, 1952- ) and a substitute weekend anchor for “Nightly News” (NBC, 1970- ). Vargas left NBC for ABC in 1996, where she again served as a news anchor and substitute co-host for “Good Morning America” (1975- ). A year later, she became a noted correspondent for “20/20” (ABC, 1978- ), with several of her profiles earning national attention. These included pieces on “The Da Vinci Code” and the role of women in organized religion; breast cancer research; the Laci Peterson case; and the wrongful conviction of Betty Tyson — the latter of which earned her an Emmy nomination in 1998. The following year, she was nominated again for her coverage of the Elian Gonzalez story, and won. In 2004, Vargas was elected to replace the retiring Barbara Walters as co-anchor of “20/20.”

Despite her hectic career, Vargas managed to maintain an active social life. She dated actor/producer Michael Douglas and singer Lyle Lovett before marrying Grammy-winning singer Marc Cohn in 2002. In 2005, Cohn was slightly injured in a traumatic carjacking incident, which received considerable press attention at the time.

That same year, Vargas received her biggest break to date, albeit under tragic circumstances, when “World News Tonight” (1965- ) longtime anchor Peter Jennings stepped away from the desk to begin chemotherapy treatment for lung cancer. Vargas was tapped to co-host the broadcast with “Good Morning America” co-host Charles Gibson. Following Jennings’ unexpected and sudden death in 2005, she and Bob Woodruff were named permanent co-anchors. However, not long after the announcement, tragedy struck again when Woodruff was seriously injured by roadside bombs while reporting in Iraq in January of 2006. Consequently, Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer took turns guest co-hosting with her, but Vargas became the indefinite sole anchor of “World News Tonight.”